The present invention relates to a modular knife block.
As is often observed, knives, in particular kitchen knives are kept and maintained within easy reach and access of a work surface or area. The knives and their blades are usually displayed in such a way so as to avoid any possible dangerous/accidental contact by those working within reach.
The use of the so called knife block is common practice; whether it is for its practical or aesthetic value the knife block is usually a mono-block made out of a material specially selected for its intended use. Woods and various plastic based materials are typical—the shape of the block is adapt for a correct and stable positioning on the work surface. The block is usually heavy in weight and has a number of holes or slits into which the various shaped knives can be inserted. Once inserted into the housing slits the knife blades are completely hidden inside the block, while the handle remains on the outside.
The knife block presents itself as a useful apparatus for the correct display of a set of knives while at the same time it both protects the blades and makes the knife handle easily accessible for the user.
However, the knife block has been widely spread on the market mainly for a specific commercial gain and purpose: that is to arrange a full set of knives in a single package to be purchased. In this way, the user/consumer ends up buying a full set of knives, within the same attractive block, of which a certain number he/she will find very little use or actually none at all.
Given this historical/commercial motivation a knife block containing less than three or five knives has never been proposed to the market: in fact an inferior number is not commercially viable and it is rather more convenient to offer the single knife in a kind of “disposable” holder/sheath, which knife may be located in the most convenient place for the user.
A significant drawback then of the traditional knife block would appear to be its predetermined size and its inflexibility to be modified as required. Meaning in the first place the user is forced to buy the set of knives according to the form, size, practicality and more often than not the aesthetic value of the knife block itself. Furthermore the mono-block by definition can not be modified, even though in time certain knives may be broken or remain unused which, in turn means the unused blade housings in the mono-block become excess.
Furthermore due to fact that the single blade housings are not easily accessible during manufacturing—that is if the mono-block were not to be divided into units and assembled later on (which would prove too costly)—it is common practice to cut them all according to a standard form (typically rectangular or parallelepipedal) which can be done easily using traditional cutting tools (circular saws or cutters). This means however that traditional blocks made according to the aforementioned technical note, cannot cater for blades of forms different to the standard.
The way in which the blade housings are cut regularly to size means that very often dirt and organic particles accumulate inside the housing—ferment and become mouldy emitting unpleasant smells, eventually becoming harmful to the hygiene state of the knives themselves. And given the fact that all the housings are cut to the same height/profundity the risk of residual accumulation in the housings where shorter knives are kept is higher, since the shorter blades remain only in the upper part of the housing. The blade housings are not easily accessed by the user for the required proper cleaning—eventually the block is a health hazard and has to be discarded.
With the aforementioned requirements in mind, knife blocks made up of two or three portions have been developed, portions which can be mounted into a mono-block and subsequently dismantled for cleaning etc. The separation lines of the various portions are designed in such a way as to expose, upon dismantling the block, the inner parts of the knife housings—at which point the user may clean the housings properly. Patent number WO 03/099081, for example, discloses this type of solution.
The above solution resolves the problem of hygiene of the blade housings however the other problems still remain. In addition there are also other problems linked to the actual construction thereof. In the first place the very fact that the separation lines for dismantling necessarily affect the knife housing, in order to avoid the formation of ugly openings and gaps in the block through use a tight, resistant locking means is necessary between the various portions. Locking means which in time through repeated mounting and dismantling will not wear and tear. Of course such a resistant means would increase the final cost of the knife block considerably. Secondly, especially in the case where the block is made of wood and since use of adhesives is not compatible with dismantling requirements, undesirable cracks do actually form along the separation lines of the blade housing where alimentary residues easily accumulate and which in turn can lead to the insertion of the knife blade into the block.
A further drawback regarding the aforementioned knife block lies with the fact that the blades tend to escape from their housing much more easily within this type of block due to the excess ‘play’ in the blade housing and very often, an improper inclination of the block while moving it, is sufficient enough for the knives to dangerously slide out of place, causing harm as one can quite imagine.